Saturday 12 April We arrive in Foz de Iguazu at 6am... Seems really ahead of time as we were told 7.30am, except that we've now crossed another time line and it's actually 7am. We're not able to check in yet, so bags in the storage room, find breakfast and amuse ourselves until 10.30am. 10.30am, we're collected for our first view of the Iguazu Falls... The Brazilian side. There's clearly rain in the air but the weather holds off for a while as the Falls slowly appear. They're spread over quite a distance and each view seems better than the last. 12.40 [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday 9th April Wake really early as is a lot of banging around in the space - retaliation for last night I think - so childish! Give up and get showered/dressed. Ater breakfast get Levy to finish off my tattoo so doesn't just look like someone has written on my arm! We're taken back to the hotel to meet the minibus again... With Levy stopping to catch an armadillo en route! We stop for lunch at Brazilian buffet BBQ (buffet seems to be the preferred style) in Miranda, before arriving in Bonito in the early afternoon. Seems like a nice quiet [View Full Entry]

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Monday 7th April Awoken by the lights being raised around 6am, and breakfast follows shortly after. Not long after we arrive at Quijarro where our transports awaits, and we leave Bolivia easily enough (taking the opportunity to change money at a good rate). We drive all the way into the town of Corumba before we formally enter Brazil at the bus station. Santa Cruz had already felt quite familiarly Brazilian, but now I start to recognise names/brands, etc! After a supermarket stop, we head for the Pantanal. We stop at the Parque Hotel for a buffet lunch (includes rice & beans [View Full Entry]

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Saturday 5th April After saying goodbye to Kel, Anna, Laura, Larissa and Vicky, spend a pleasant morning wandering round Sucre. 11ish we are collected and taken to the airport where we get another chance to buy chocolate. That's about it for entertainment before we're onto our Aerosur plane (lunch-bag in hand). Short flight later and we're in Santa Cruz... Immediately hit by the heatwave! Quick check-in (I'll be in a room on my own from now on), and we head out to the main square. Find ourselves heading for the Irish Pub (I think Lila said the only one in Bolivia) [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 3 April A beautiful night's sleep, a late breakfast and disappeared off into the markets with Kel, Anna, Linda and Shilpa. Amazing piles of fruit and veg everywhere, try some pea pods and dried chick-peas, bargain over some toiletries and try some chocolate fountain. By 2pm I'm ready for the city tour, along with Laura and Larissa. We drive, ooo, half a block, and pull up on the main Plaza. Some interesting information on the buildings and statues here (including Sucre, who along with Boliviar, liberated many S. American countries from Spain). Next stop the weaving museum, which fills us [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, April 1 Woken several times during the night by texts going off... The same message from Sophie C seems to keep arriving every half-hour or so. Had to turn phone on as alarm clock is broken... Need to get a new one asap, but not today. We meet for breakfast 9.30am, before Lila gives us information at 10am about the city, the fact that the strikes have finished so we can go to Sucre tomorrow, and sees how many want to go down the silver mines this afternoon... Full house. No one's committing to doing anything so find nearest internet [View Full Entry]

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Friday 28th We all make sure we allow an hour for the fabulous buffet breakfast, but we can't quite do it the justice we did yesterday! We pay up, check out, and our transfer bus arrives on time. Nice big bus... We wonder why we can't have it for the whole journey, but no, we're on the public bus for 3 hours when we swap to a train to Uyani. Takes us a while to check the bags in... No one's quite sure what the limit is (10k/13k/15k?)'but they're checked as a group and we stump up 7Bs each to cover [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday 26th March Woke before my alarm. Up, shower, most of my clothes are dry so able to pack them away. Fully packed by 630am when we head down for breakfast. By 7am we're on the transfer bus to the bus station, and by 730am we're on the bus to La Paz. Reasonable bus this time - clearly a tourist bus! Road is not in great condition... Rather bumpy. Was excited to have a window seat but sun too bright and we have to pull the curtains so thought I'd finish this... As the DVD they tried to put on didn't [View Full Entry]

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Monday 24th March Option of a 7 or 730am start - we took the 730am option. We meet our tour guide for the next couple of days: Percy, as we are taken to the port in our 'limos' .. These turn out to be cyclos, and it's about as scary/fun as it was in Asia, dodging the traffic and trying to catch photos of each other. We get to the port, buy some goods from the market for our host families (rice, pasta, etc... No sweets as no dentists), and board our boat. The first boat ride is 2.5 hours, with [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 23rd March Easter Sunday, started 7am with firecrackers in the city. Meant got up in plenty of time to shower/finish packing. Ummed and arred about heading to Jacq's for that breakfast I never had, but go for the hotel one instead. It takes a while and I'm champing at the bit to get to the internet shop to back up my photos on DVD. The one I checked yesterday isn't open, but the next one is even cheaper. Whilst she is making my DVDs I'm uploading photos to the blog - computer's a bit slow so don't complete yet, but [View Full Entry]

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